Chapter Four

A/N: Yay! Finally another chapter! Okies people, there's references later on in this one that probably only people who've read Harry Potter will totally get, but that shouldn't matter too much. I guess I should stick in a disclaimer right about now huh? Harry Potter and CCS do not belong to me AT ALL! Enjoy chapter five, and please review ^_^.

Chapter Five

"You're fond of her, aren't you?" Zachary heard for about the millionth time since they'd gotten home.

"No Way! She's an awful witch! Now stop asking me that."

"As a matter of fact she's the most powerful witch in the world, next to your Sakura of course."

"Of course." Zachary rolled his eyes. "You know, you're getting to be pretty annoying. You're lucky I haven't donated you to charity yet. I'm starting to think maybe you're the one who likes her."

"Don't be absurd." Quan crossed his arms in front of him and raised his nose in the air. "I couldn't possibly."

"Whatever you say, my liege." Zachary flipped the channel and took a sip of his soda, while Quan flew muttering to himself all the way to Zachary's room.

~At Torako's…

"So you told them huh?"

Torako had just finished telling her brother all about what happened at Li's house, and about her first capture, even though she knew that he'd probably already know about half of it.

"Yep, and they didn't care. They really are nice people. Zachary called a truce when we were walking home. I decided to give him a chance."

"And our favourite cousin?" Saruko questioned her.

"He…I…well…he wants to be friends…kind of. " Torako had no idea how her brother would react. She guessed it wouldn't be well.

"Friends?" he snorted.

"What? What's so funny?" Torako said heatedly.

"Oh nothing, it's just that I'm sure our families will love this."

"They won't be finding out about it if you value your life." She glared at him.

"We'll see. We'll see. So where's the card?" he changed the subject quickly.

Torako took the blue and silver coloured card out of her side bag and waved it in front of him like it was a trophy. "The first card to show itself, and I captured it all by myself," she bragged.

"Nice job."

"That's it? Nice job?!" Torako had expected a bit more interest.

"Well, what else do you want me to say? It's not like it was an amazing capture. The Giggle is the easiest card of all of them to get. Let me know when you capture, say, any of the cards that have a useful purpose. Then you'll see some enthusiasm."

"Aargh! You're so difficult!!!!"

"You should be used to that by now."

"I give up." She threw her hands up. "I've got homework. Don't bother me."

Torako stalked off to her room and slammed the door (again!). She sat on her bed and looked around the place. It didn't look nearly as nice as her room at home. Her canopy bed looked out of place in a room with such a low ceiling. Through her window she could always see the streetlights shining, not at all like at home. Their manor was set far back from the road, and it was usually fairly quiet. At that moment a fire truck went by noisily. Torako sighed. She respected her family, and the fact that she had a duty to perform, but sometimes she wished that she were part of a normal family, that stayed in one place, oblivious to magic. She'd lived all over the world already, and she was only fifteen! When she was born they were still living in China, but soon after, they left. Her mother hated the way the neighbours would talk about what happened to their father whenever she walked by. After that it was over to England for a while, until she felt she needed a change of scenery. So then they lived in Canada until Torako was eight years old. Then the family decided that Torako needed to be in China and England again, to better learn about her cultural heritage and the family history that she would have to dedicate her life to. That's why she was so aggressive when it came to the Rahn Cards. She'd spent most of her life preparing for the moment when the book would be opened and the cards needed capturing. Suddenly this boy who knew nothing about them was making all of that work pointless. No, she wouldn't stand for it. She would be friendly to him, but when it came to capture the cards, any friendship with him would be forgotten. Torako sighed again. She pulled out the card and looked at it.
"I wish you could know what I gave up for you. For my family."

Torako laughed at herself. Why was she talking to the card? It wasn't like she was expecting it to talk back. She put it into a deep green velvet bag and pulled the gold tassels to close it. She set the bag next to the picture frame on her desk and then changed into her pyjamas, thinking about everyone in Kodokuharu, wondering what they might be doing there now as she fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~The next day

"I want an explanation."

Chelsea was not impressed by the fact that Zachary had been ignoring her for almost a month now.

"I, I've just been busy!" he shrugged and looked behind him, searching for some way out of this confrontation. "Nikki would you mind going away for a minute? How come when people put you in fics you're always together? You know, there were once these two Hebrew monks and one was suspected of stealing a man's cow, and since they were always together naturally-"

"ENOUGH! I'll go." Nikki groaned and then practically ran away from them.

"That's better."

Chelsea crossed her arms in front of her and gave Zachary one of those weird looks that are supposed to mean something.

"What's going on Zachary? Don't lie to me." She tapped her foot on the ground.

"I have been busy." He said solemnly.

"It's not just that! I know it isn't. You've changed somehow. You always seem to be able to make time for Li. You've been doing stuff with him after school every day and it's like you have some big secret that Sakura and Madison know about too.What's going on?"

"It's nothing, really. I'm sorry, I swear I'll make it up to you somehow. I just really have a lot of things going on right now."

Chelsea looked skeptical.

Zachary looked behind him again, struggling to come up with a better answer. "I…uh, I'm finding things out about myself that I never new before…it's uh, really…something I shouldn't be talking about with you, if you know what I mean. It's kind of…personal." He did some weird thing with his face to make it look like he was implying something.

"You aren't lying? I mean…sorry…I guess. I don't really know what you're talking about but you're going to let me make my own conclusions aren't you?"

Zachary nodded. 'Please yes' he thought, 'make up your own excuse for me, It's so much easier to let you think what you want to.'

"I think I understand." She leaned close to his ear. "Zachary, are you gay?"

Zachary was a bit worried that she came up with that guess so quickly. "Erm, don't go telling people that, okay? I wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea."

"Your secret's safe."

"I know it is. Thanks for understanding." He kissed her on the cheek and then walked away, leaving her almost completely confused.

Great, he thought, I got away without telling her, but I didn't exactly lie to her either. But at the same time another part of him wished he could tell her the truth.

Wait a minute, he thought to himself. Why can't I tell her the truth anyways? It's not like the ground will open up under me and I'll be sucked into the fiery pits of…yeah, I will tell her!

"Chelsea!" he ran back to her, which confused her even more. "I have to tell you the truth."

"Truth? But I thought-"

"I just wanted to let you think that because it was so much easier to let you think up your own story. Promise not to tell anybody?"

Chelsea nodded.

"The truth is…I'm a card captor."

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Chelsea quirked an eyebrow.

"There are these magical cards I have to capture. Li's been helping me get in shape so I don't fall on my face every time I try to capture one. That's what's really been going on. I swear to god."

"I don't believe this." Chelsea said with an absent looking expression on her face.

"I know, I-"

"First you let me think you were gay, and now you're telling me that you're some kind of, super hero?! I can see that I'm not going to get the truth out of you today. When you're ready to tell me what's really going on, then come see me." She crossed her arms and turned away from him.

"Chels! Come o…don't do this! I told you the truth! I swear on my love for fried chicken, honest!"

"That's the problem with you Yamazaki." she glared at him. "You always have to be so funny even when someone's trying to be serious with you." Chelsea walked away from him briskly, without turning back, leaving Zachary standing in the middle of the courtyard with his mouth open, searching for something to say that would make her stop, and for once actually feeling as if he'd told one too many stories.

About five seconds later Li was standing beside him.

"Woman problems? Anything I can do to help?" Li raised an eyebrow.

"Just shut up. It's not like you know anything about them either." His shoulders were slouched, and he had a disgusted look on his face as he turned to Li.

"You told her, didn't you?"

"Yes, if you feel you really have to bother me about it. She didn't believe me." He grumbled and started walking towards the school.

"We all told you not to Zachary. With the stories you tell all the time, it's no wonder she didn't believe you."

"I thought if anyone would, she would. She can always tell when I'm making something up. At least I thought she could." Zachary gave one of those sad, worried, anxious anime-style looks to the ground.

"She'll cool off."

"I'll repeat this in case you didn't hear. It's not like you know anything about them either. Just look at you and Sakura! Even I can see-"

"Huh? See what? I don't know what you're talking about! I do not!"

"N-nothing." Zachary pulled himself back from the threshold of death (caused by Sakura) as they sat down at their desks. "I just…well…you know that four letter word that can get you into trouble?"

"Which one?" Li asked innocently.

Zachary sweat dropped. "That…fuzzy pink one…you know?"

"I think I do." Sakura said from behind them. "So guys, what's the topic of conversation this morning?"

"Sakura!" Li almost had a heart attack. "How long have you been sitting there?!" hopefully not long enough to hear that last outburst, he thought.

"Oh, since about, September." She said, just to tease him, smiling knowingly. "What's up?"

"Zachary told Chelsea. She didn't believe it."

"Oh no. Zachary, we told you not t-"

"YES! We've already been through all of that." He nearly yelled, with an aggravated expression.

"Humph. And that fuzzy pink word? What's that about?"

"I think…I…might have broken the poor girl's heart." He came up with.

"Zachary." Sakura gave him the look.

"What?!" He looked totally appalled that she would even suggest that he was lying.

"I think, that you just don't want anybody to know that you feel, erm, fuzzy-pink for someone. Right?"

"Yes! No, yes, I mean no! I mean…ohh." Zachary moaned and let his head fall to the desk with a thump.

Sakura smiled sympathetically while Li tried to keep from letting out even the teeniest snort.

"Zachary, it's okay you know. It's not like it's a bad thing. I think it's very sweet." She gave Li a sideways glance.

"Thanks, Sakura, because you know what every guy wants is to be sweet." He said sarcastically.

Madison came to her desk at that moment. "Hi everyone." Her voice smiled as much as her face did. "Oh, what's wrong Zachary?"

In response he just groaned and buried his head in his arms.

So Li and Sakura explained to her, and then to Torako when she came in, of course leaving out the fuzzy-pink part.

"Oh, I'm sorry Zachary." Torako said when they finished. He just waved the comment away as if saying that there was nothing to be sorry for, he had it coming. At least that's what he kept telling himself.

The bell rang to start the class and Mr. Terada immediately gave them a stack of stuff to work through for the rest of the class, which was probably also enough to last till the end of the week. About half an hour into the class Zachary heard his name.

"Pssst! Zachary!" Torako whispered to get his attention. He looked over at her and she handed him her eraser with a note hidden behind it so the teacher wouldn't see.

"Zachary, Torako? What's that?" Mr. Terada had caught them.

"Oh, Zachary just asked to borrow my eraser sir."

"Alright."

Zachary unfolded the note after a few seconds and read;

Zachary,

I don't see why, but my brother wants to meet you and Quan. Can you come to my place tonight right after school?

~Torako

He gave her back her eraser and nodded when she looked at him. This could be interesting, he thought.

Torako couldn't believe that she'd just invited one of her nemeses to dinner on behalf of her other nemesis. She rolled her eyes as she thought that to herself, and then started to work again.

~*~*~*~*~

Zachary looked up the listing of numbers, looking for Torako's apartment. He finally found it and pressed the button.

"Yes?" Torako's voice came over the intercom.

"It's me," he said.

With a loud buzz and a click that made him nearly jump out of his skin, the door unlocked.

He took the elevator up to the fourth floor. The whole time, an arrogant looking guy in a suit kept looking down his nose at Zachary, who waved to the man and then started talking to his "invisible friend" in hushed tones.

He knocked on the door and Torako answered it with a towel wrapped around her head.

"Hi," he said. "We aren't too early, are we?"

"No, except Saruko isn't even finished school yet. Come in." She moved aside to let Zachary in to the condo. "Where's the primate?"

"Sleeping." He poked his backpack in disgust. "What a leech. All he ever does is eat, sleep, and complain that I'm "Positively atrocious."

"Ha. Well you can leave him on the couch if you like."

"I like. So, why am I here?" he got to the point quickly.

"Well the truth is, I don't know. Honestly, I think my brother is insane, no offence. He dragged Sakura and Madison off the street to come up here a few days ago without even being introduced to them first. They told me that if they hadn't seen the resemblance between us they would have probably run and called the police on him."

"Hmm. Well, it's too late for me to turn back now. I guess I'll just have to try to live through it."

"Good luck." She dried her hair off a bit more and then went out of the room to put the towel in the bathroom. "So, I guess I should show you around. My brother said that it's okay with him if we meet here sometimes, since he already knows all about everything. Obviously, this is the hall,"

"I knew it!" Zachary exclaimed.

Torako groaned, and led him around the place. "This is the living room." She showed him the room that was full of state-of-the-art electronics.

"Hey cool, Nintendo!" he started to sprint for it but Torako pulled him back in time.

"Moving along…this is the kitchen. Saruko's room is down there," She gestured to a closed door with a 'radioactive' sign hung on it, "And a storage room." She led him around the partition between the kitchen and the living room and down a hallway opposite Saruko's room.

"This is the bathroom." She flicked the light on in a room to her left and the bathroom decorated in blue, silver, and probably fake marble came into view.

"Classay." Zachary nodded.

She pointed to the room on the right. "That's the laundry room. Nothing exciting in there, unless you count the dryer lint."

She opened the door to the room at the end of the hall. "This is my room." She flicked on the light and went in. Everything was decorated in shades of crimson and gold, and all of the furniture looked like antique cherry wood.

"Hey, this looks even nicer than the bathroom. Who's the decorator?" His eyes went up to the ceiling.

"I am. Thanks. My mom hates it." She turned around to face the mirror on her dresser and started to brush her hair.

"Hey, parents are supposed to hate their kid's taste in almost everything. That's the way it's been forever."

"Huh. That I can believe. Have a seat."

Zachary obediently sat down in the chair at her desk and started looking at stuff. Even the lava lamp sitting there was red inside. He was just about to flip open the book that was sitting there when Torako picked it up out of his hand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She opened the top drawer of her dresser and slid it inside.

"What-oh, I see. Anything about me in there?" he quirked an eyebrow teasingly.

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

"Hey, that's my saying." He turned back to her desk. It was weird, he had the feeling that Torako could be a lot more fun if she'd just relax a bit "Who's this?" he carefully picked up the gold picture frame and looked at it.

"What? Oh, that…that's Jared."

"Oh." He looked at the picture again. It was one of Torako and a guy who had hair darker blond than hers, sitting on the grass with part of a roller coaster behind them. She was sitting in front of his crossed legs leaning back on him. He had his arms around hers, and she was holding on to his hands in front of her. They were both grinning.

"Is he your boyfriend?"

Torako stopped brushing her hair and didn't say anything for a few seconds, then gave a strange kind of half-giggle, "No…he's my best friend. Another part of my taste that my mother loathes."

"Loathes? Why?"

"Because he's not rich. Because he's different from us. She told him to his face that she didn't think he was good enough to be around me. And now she finally got her wish and separated us." She sighed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright. You know, when this picture was taken, it was one of the few times I've ever felt normal in my life." She laughed to herself. "We went to a theme park with his family, since mine wanted nothing to do with him. It felt so good to get away from all that seriousness and just relax, you know? Be a normal teenager. But then I guess you wouldn't know about being different until now, would you? We met at public school, before my mother put me in private lessons, which was the first way she tried to separate us… But that's enough about me for today." She put down her brush and put a clip in her hair. "Let's go see what's in the fridge."

Zachary followed her out of the room to the kitchen. He heard a dull scratching noise and couldn't figure out where it came from until Torako opened the window and a huge bird flew in.

"What's that?!" Zachary gaped at it as he backed into the wall.

"This," she stroked the bird's feathers, "is a messenger."

The falcon cocked its head to one side and looked at Zachary, then at Torako, and pecked at a parcel it had dropped on the kitchen counter.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Thank you. Wait here while I write a letter to the headmaster."

It squawked indignantly and ruffled it's feathers.

"Zachary, look in that cupboard to your left. There should be something for him in there." She grabbed a pen and a pad of paper from beside the phone and started writing quickly.

Zachary opened the cupboard and found a bag of bird treats. He fished a few out of the container and dropped them on the counter, a bit nervous about getting too close to the gigantic owl.

"What is all this?" he asked her. He felt something tugging on his shirtsleeve and looked over, seeing it was the big bird. "What do you want now?" it hopped over to the container on the counter. "Okay fine, but that's all." He gave it a couple more treats.

"It's my correspondence course. I started going to this…school when I turned eleven. Since my mom moved back and forth between England and China all the time, the headmaster let me take my courses like this. This way, I learn everything I normally would, but I don't have to stay away at school."

"What kind of school is so important that you would want to do that?" Zachary asked.

"Well, a very special one…" she licked the envelope and gave it to the owl, who flew back out the window.

"Wonder what it is this month…" Torako opened the parcel and took out a long scroll of parchment. "Oh, finals! I've got about five projects to do here! Transfiguration… herbology …Damn that potions master. He wants the antidote for glooberwarts." She read down the list.

"Glooberwarts huh? What exactly do you do at this school?"

"Oh, it's…ah, it's a school of witchcraft."

"What, you mean like, you could turn me into a toad by saying abra kedabra?" Zachary did some crazy hand gesture.

Torako looked at him uneasily, like she had just swallowed something prickly. "Don't ever do that again." She croaked.

"How come?"

"Because people with magical abilities…when they do that…bad things can happen. I'm totally serious. It's a different kind of magic all together."

"Sorry."

At that moment Saruko finally came home.

"Hello kiddies. I'm not interrupting anything am I?" he grinned as he stuck his head through the doorway.

"No, nothing. What's for supper?" Torako asked quickly.

"I thought I'd prepare a gourmet meal…but then I remember that all I've ever cooked is macaroni and cheese. Yamazaki, what's the best pizza place in town?"

Zachary laughed. "That'd be Luigi's"

"Great. You order, I'll pay."

~*~*~*~*~*~

So the pizza came, and when it came, they started to eat it, after Saruko put the latest horror movie into the DVD player.

"No, don't open the door!" Quan (who had finally woken up) yelled at the girl on the screen.

"Uh." Torako rolled her eyes and took her empty plate to the kitchen. "I'm going to go work on some of my homework. I'll leave you three alone to plot whatever little scheme you need to."

After she'd been gone for about five minutes, Saruko turned the TV volume down low and turned to Zachary.

"So, Yamazaki. What do you think of my sister?" he asked.

"What? I…what?"

"Well, what do you think of her?"

"Well…she's very…different. And hot- uh, nice."

"Back up there, what was that other thing you said? Hot?"

"Uh," he cleared his thought, "No? I mean, not that she's not it's just…uh, yeah." He stammered.

"Well, if you even think of trying anything with her, just remember that if you make anything bad happen to my little sister, I will kick your ass in a second."

"Uh, thanks for letting me know…sir…is that why you asked me over here? Because if you don't mind me saying, that's a pretty stupid reason, and I think if I did try anything with her, which I wouldn't, and I did make something bad happen to her, which I wouldn't, she'd be quite capable of kicking my ass herself."

"I'm sorry. I'm just so used to having to beat guys off of her with a stick. Anyways, what I really asked you over for was just to meet you. I've heard stories about the Guardian Beast since I was very young. You know, when she first met you she was all mad and she said you were exactly like me, an idiot. I thought hey, maybe you were an okay guy. She calls me an idiot all the time, and just look at me."

"Uh, huh." Zachary looked at him funny. "For some reason I don't find that incouraging."

"So, you're new to magic, hmm? You better figure it out fast, because Torako is very determined. No offence, but I think it's best if you stay out of our family's business. It means a lot to us."

"Hey, just who do you think you are mister? Zachary is the chosen one, not your sister. His destiny is to be one of the greatest wizards of all time, and nothing you two say or do can get in the way of that." Quan snapped out of his daze and yelled at Saruko.

"Hey, I'm just trying to save you some trouble. All I'm saying is, she'll be all fun and games with you, but when a card comes around she'll still be your rival, truce or no truce."

"Well, thanks for the warning, and the pizza, but I think it's time for me to go. Come on Quan. We don't have to put up with this crap." He picked his backpack up off the couch and headed for the door.

"Zachary? Why are you leaving so soon?" Torako poked her head out of her bedroom door.

"Ask him." He pointed at Saruko as he went out the door.

"What did you do?!" He heard Torako yell to her brother just as he closed the door.

"Why doesn't anybody think I can do this?! They think I'm a weak loser who can't do anything!"

"Well, it could be your lack of skill, or your lack of experience, or you lack of-"

"Thanks for your support." He said sarcastically. "Now get in the bag."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That's it for this chapter. I need to ask a favour of everyone who reads this now. When you review, please send me the corniest, most awful one liners you've ever heard that would fit with this story, and also any bad pickup lines. I'll use the best ones in some of my next chapters ^_^.